(The following story by Deborah Barfield Berry appeared on the Clarion-Ledger website on October 30, 2009.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi says hunters and sportsmen should be allowed to bring unloaded guns in checked bags aboard Amtrak trains, and he’s pushing for legislation to allow it.
“This is simply a matter of common sense and convenience for law-abiding hunters and sportsmen to transport their weapons the same way that they do on other railroads and on the airlines,” said Wicker, a Republican. “It’s simply a matter of fairness.”
But Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, a fellow Mississippian and chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, says the proposal raises national security concerns.
“It’s a problem from a strictly security standpoint,” Thompson said. “Most of the rail system doesn’t have the security measures in place. … This just adds another layer of vulnerability we can do without.”
Under Wicker’s proposal, guns in checked baggage carried aboard Amtrak trains would have to be unloaded, declared and stored in a locked special container.
Amtrak would have until March 31 to carry out the change or lose federal funding.
Lawmakers are considering the amendment as part of a transportation and housing appropriations bill.
The Senate approved Wicker’s amendment last month, but the version of the spending bill passed by the House doesn’t include the proposal.
Lawmakers plan to meet soon to reconcile differences between the bills.
Earlier this month, Rep. John Fleming, a Republican from Louisiana, introduced similar legislation.
“This is an opportunity for those who support Second Amendment rights to regain some lost ground,” said Fleming, whose bill has 32 co-sponsors, including three Democrats. “There is a lot solidarity when it comes to the right to bear arms.”
Amtrak’s gun ban has been a hardship for sportsmen, many of whom travel to events, said Greg R. Lawson, spokesman for the U.S. Sportsmen Alliance, a national advocacy group.
“If you make it impossible for sportsmen to carry their firearms to go on a hunting trip, they are never going to be able to use the train,” Lawson said. “This takes care of that. It’s a very reasonable proposal.”
Amtrak officials say they couldn’t meet the March 31 deadline and are worried about how they’d pay for added security measures, such as renovating baggage cars to store guns.
“For us, it’s not about Second Amendment rights,” Amtrak spokesman Steven Kulm said. “Our issue is that Congress wants us to do it by a date certain, which we don’t think we can meet. … We want to do it properly.”
Amtrak officials said they would want to get guidance from the Transportation Security Administration and develop internal policies.
They also would have to train employees on how to handle and store firearms.
“We’re going to have to find some money to do all these things,” Kulm said.
Thompson said the change would “waste precious federal resources.”
In a letter this month to key Appropriation Committee leaders, he and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., ranking member on the Homeland Security Committee, said Wicker’s amendment “undermines” rail security.
Thompson said he would support a study on how the change could be implemented.
“More than anything, we’re not ready,” he said.
Wicker dismissed Thompson’s arguments and said he doesn’t know of any past problems with guns on Amtrak.
“The fears are so unrealistic,” Wicker said. “I am listening carefully to their complaints. Hard as I listen, I fail to see how a weapon with the ammunition taken out, stored in a locked, hardened container in checked baggage poses any security threat.”
Amtrak used to allow passengers to bring unloaded firearms in checked baggage aboard trains, but it changed that policy after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Since then, only law enforcement officials may carry weapons aboard the trains.
Amtrak officials acknowledge railway security measures are nowhere near as tough as those used at airports. But they say the rail service randomly checks baggage and employs police and canine units.
Proponents of lifting the gun restriction argue that passengers can board a train now with a gun or a knife without being screened.
“The real danger is from someone bringing a gun onboard … which you can do today,” Fleming said. “Why in the world would we be concerned about a sportsman who will be required to put an unloaded gun in a secure box?”
Thompson, a hunter himself, said citizens have the right to bear arms but it makes sense to limit where they can carry them.
“Just to make this a Second Amendment issue does not address the security risk that it poses,” he said. “We hunt in Mississippi. Guns are not something that we are adverse to, but there are rules.”